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Scheduling means Which nutrient? How much? and When to apply?

The basic quantum of NPK used to prepare the schedules is actually the recommended doses (RD) of NPK by relevant public institutions or state agriculture universities. Using these basic recommendations, schedules are prepared to match the growth and the known developmental stages of each crop. In order to enhance the use of the schedules to other regions/countries where different RD is in practice, the book gives information on the basic nutrient split ratios for each growth stage duration. Using these ratios the fertilizers are to be partitioned for each stage of the crop. Each of these parts of fertilizers are then converted into farmer-usable daily doses. However, the schedule is not given on a daily application basis as it was found that most farmers do not want to go for daily dosing (injection). Hence the schedule is reported using a dose for every three days.  It is also found that more frequent application schedule will give better yield and nutrient use efficiency.

The schedules of most of the crops given in this book are actually field applied by farmers during the last two decades and been in use for several seasons.